Photo courtesy of police authorities June 15, 2024

Taipei, June 15 (CNA) A 16-member fraud ring that impersonated local investment expert Hsieh Chin-ho (謝金河) and illegally profited over NT$140 million (US$4.3 million) was arrested earlier this week, New Taipei police said on Friday.

Police said the ring, which has been advertising nationwide since 2023 by using Hsieh, chairman of Investment Media, to falsely endorse various investment schemes, was busted on June 12 in a hotel in Taipei.

The suspects first lured 12 job seekers with online advertisements. They then demanded their ATM cards and bank accounts before holding them captive in Taipei and New Taipei hotels, according to the New Taipei City Police Department’s Ruifang Precinct.

The information was then used to create proxy accounts to defraud 32 other people, with the “hostages” released only after their accounts were red-flagged by the authorities for money laundering and rendered useless, police said.

The case came to light in March 2023, when a victim used as a proxy escaped from captivity and reported to the police about being beaten and detained by the ring in a hotel in Taipei’s Zhongshan District.

The case has been transferred to the Taiwan Keelung District Prosecutors Office, police said.